May 17, 2012, Staff Report
A bike share program will come to Queens this year after all, reports the Queens Chronicle.
The banking giant Citi, also known as Citigroup or Citibank, will install 10,000 bikes and 600 dock stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island City. The bikes in the “Citi Bike” fleet will be branded with the bank’s name.
Mayor Bloomberg, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, other officials and Citi CEO Vikram Pandit announced the deal on May 9 at City Hall Plaza. At the time Sadik-Khan said the $40 million project would come to Long Island City eventually, but did not say when. Andrew Brent, a spokesman for Citi, said the bikes would be available in LIC sometime next year.
However the plan quickly changed.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) on May 13, just three days after the announcement of the environmentally-friendly plan, said the bikes will roam the borough that has the company’s name on Queens’ biggest building and on the Mets stadium.
“You can’t have a citywide bike share program that doesn’t include Queens,” Van Bramer said.
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14 Comments
Mike Novak makes the best point here, enforcement needs to be consistent. Frankly I may seem cynical but with more and more people just about any form of transportation will get more difficult no matter what we do.
Mary and Irish’s exchange just shows that both old and young people think the other are idiots, it’s like having a political discussion.
If the city wants install and implement bike lanes, then there should be equal enforcement and regulation regarding the roads for both drivers of vehicles/bicycles of all types.
Anyone who spends any time on Sillman or 43rd Ave will attest that bicyclists are constantly riding the wrong way, not riding in the bike lane, not signaling, not obeying traffic signs and lights and generally endangering the lives of others.
As a lifelong cyclist and car owner, I see the road as something that should be shared, paid for, regulated, and most importantly ENFORCED for both the driver and bicyclist.
@Irish Sunnysider If my post implied I thought biking was wrong, it was due to inexact writing. I don’t see that my words attacked bikers. I simply defended drivers. New ideas and new ways may be improvements, but they may also be reinventions of the wheel. Only time will tell. Both sides need to have patience.
The tone of your post tips me off that at the moment your patience has worn thin. Don’t take it out on me.
I, too, bike. Last spring I determined to bike to work in Manhattan and did so for several weeks. Then, one evening I was nearly hit three times in the space of four blocks. I was doing every thing by the book. Taxis, pedestrians and a traffic cop were not. So, I’m back in my car. I’m simply not tough enough for the mean streets of New York.
K2 wins!
I just can’t wait to ride a bicycle along the Blvd of Death. As soon as I make sure my life insurance is paid up.
HAVE THOSE OF YOU WHO ADVOCATE BICYCLING ON OUR CONGESTED ROADS OBSERVED THIEIR FLAGRANT DISREGARD FOR STOP SIGNS, TRAFFIC LIGHTS ,PEDESTRIANS ETC. ETC.
iT IS DIFFICULT ENOUGH DRIVING IN QUEENS WITHOUT THE ADDED PROBLEM OF WATCHING OUT FOR BIKE RIDERS AND MOTORCYCLES THAT WEAVE IN AND OUT OF THE TRAFFIC IN ORDER TO BEAT EVERYONE ELSE.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE COMMON SENSE OF OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS?
@Just Looking re-read your last sentence and you’ll also see that young people feel this way about older people who constantly patronize us about how much we stink and how wrong we are. Respect cuts both ways. Yes you did some things right, but I wouldn’t argue you did all things right. Many of us under the age of 30 work and pay taxes here too, time to stop telling us to get off your lawn.
O’Shea is largely right, with the growth in population of this city and the increase in traffic, not to mention the cost of owning a car, alternatives are needed to get around. Since we refuse to fund a true mass transit system bikes have become the new alternative. A study in the Daily News just stated its the fastest way to commute now, so it’s going to grow no matter what, might as well try to build a sensible system. Sure bikers are pricks, but so are NYC drivers.
@ K2 Shame on you.
@ O’Shea I have often regretted Robert Moses and his exclusive vision, but Queens and Long Island–the two places I frequent most–are designed for car travel, whether we like it or not. A lot of America is, whether we like it or not. While some changes happen fast, the switch to another transportation system make take time.
As in any change, your place on the curve dictates your comfort with it. Susan has a right to be irritated. I, too, have spent most of my life in the Robert Moses designed NY. I drive a car most of the time for many, many reasons and going back to living without one would be a hardship because I am not young and strong anymore. Perhaps if I had not had to save and buy a car to do things when I was younger I would be stronger. I hope the generations after us are. But youthful people must have some respect for the people who came before them. The world was different when we were your age and we did the right thing for the time. Denigrading people who’s circumstances and decisions you don’t understand is ignorant.
@susan
You sound like someone that has not travelled much.
Hopefully you would visit vancouver, reykjavik or bogota on your next vacation. You would understand that robert moses’s planned new york was poorly planned for people. It is just not a sustainable city.
Susan, this may come as a surprise, but owning a car and riding a bike aren’t mutually exclusive.
I don’t mean to pick on you. But it’s a common assumption that’s pretty irritating.
This may blow some peoples’ heads, but I do both, and in addition I also walk my ass off and take subways and buses.
And as someone who holds all perspectives, the war on bike riders is really appalling. Good for the councilman.
@K2
I’m willing to bet $100 you casually make degrading assumptions about people you don’t even know.
I prefer obese people.
Susan,
I’d be willing to bet $100 that you’re morbidly obese.
Am I wrong?
😉
all for bike lanes when they are licensed, pay insurance rates, pay registration fees and are taxed like autos are for road repair…we pay all these taxes as autos owners and our lanes have been reduced and our fees have been icreased…our drivingng time has been reduced in time increasing pollution— you are making the licensed drivers give up roadways for bikes at our expense and bike riders have total disregard for all laws as for red lights, speed, direction etc etc. when do licensed drivers get a break????
Too bad one or two of these stations couldn’t be located a bit further down Queens Blvd instead of all being located around the Citibank Aquamarine Building.